{"id":12168,"date":"2025-06-24T12:53:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T09:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/?p=12168"},"modified":"2025-06-24T17:51:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T14:21:20","slug":"the-rare-patriotism-of-a-deceased-soul-first-bangladesh-my-last-bangladesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/?p=12168","title":{"rendered":"The rare patriotism of a deceased soul: ‘First Bangladesh, my last Bangladesh’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tarique Afzal<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The warrior who sacrificed his life for the worldly illusions and fought\u2014Martyred President Ziaur Rahman, Bir Uttam.<\/p>\n

A son of Bagbari, Gabtali, Bogra, he was commissioned in the 12th PMA long-term course in 1955.<\/p>\n

In that oath, he pledged his commitment to sovereignty and the motherland.<\/p>\n

Later, the freedom-loving hero led the ‘Z Force’ and bravely snatched the independence of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

His thunderous declaration shattered the might of the invading forces: ‘I, Ziaur Rahman, declare independence for Bangladesh.’<\/p>\n

In the history of Bangladesh,\u00a0 examples of single-minded victory, impartiality, and public participation are still rare.<\/p>\n

He is still respected in the world as the promoter of multi-party democracy.<\/p>\n

A man of integrity, humanity and justice, he remained steadfast in his values \u200b\u200buntil the end of his life. He formulated a 19-point development action plan, which included economic development, self-reliance, rural development, administrative decentralization, and open market policy\u00a0and population control.<\/p>\n

By prioritizing agriculture, he was sincere in promoting the standard of living of farmers, export-oriented agriculture, self-reliance in food, and the expansion of domestic industry through earning foreign exchange. Unfortunately, later, in the name of industrial expansion, corruption, bank robbery by a few nominal entrepreneurs and\u00a0Money laundering pushes the country’s economy to the brink of ruin.<\/p>\n

His philosophy of village-based economy had a profound impact on me in 1978-79. Since then, I have become interested in agricultural development and small and medium industries.<\/p>\n

\u2018He paved the way for decentralization of local administration by introducing ‘Gram Sarkar’ and ‘Village Defence Force’.<\/p>\n

His foreign policy and the philosophy presented at the United Nations are still admired in the world today.<\/p>\n

He amended the constitution in a way that combined Islam and communal harmony.<\/p>\n

His initiative to establish democracy based on the multidimensional participation of different political parties was an outstanding contribution, the lack of which the nation still feels today.<\/p>\n

Agricultural restoration through the \u2018Dig-in-the-Drain\u2019 program and\u00a0His contribution to rural development is still etched in the minds of the people of the country.<\/p>\n

He presented a far-reaching vision of controlling the overall economic trajectory by combining a village-based economy and later urban-based development.<\/p>\n

Today, in his absence, the nation is disappointed, disoriented, indebted and in many cases helpless. That hero, a symbol of national dignity and self-respect, is no longer with us. However, he has left behind a brilliant history of ideals and inspiration.<\/p>\n

The scene seen in May 1981\u2014’the whole of Bangladesh beside a dead body’\u2014is still etched in my memory. When I go back to that moment, my heart is filled with respect and love. That successful freedom fighter, statesman\u2014who was honest, brave, hardworking and averse to propaganda, is no more.<\/p>\n

Respect and Oath – I swear by your majesty – I will never turn away from you, remaining steadfast in your ideals. I will fight selflessly, I will be successful for the future.<\/p>\n

‘You remain silent’.<\/p>\n

Author: Tarique Afzal, Prominent Economist and Banker.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tarique Afzal The warrior who sacrificed his life for the worldly illusions and fought\u2014Martyred President Ziaur Rahman, Bir Uttam. A son of Bagbari, Gabtali, Bogra, he was commissioned in the 12th PMA long-term course in 1955. In that oath, he pledged his commitment to sovereignty and the motherland. Later, the freedom-loving hero led the ‘Z Force’ and bravely snatched the independence of Bangladesh. His thunderous declaration shattered the might of the invading forces: ‘I, Ziaur Rahman, declare independence for Bangladesh.’ In the history of Bangladesh,\u00a0 examples of single-minded victory, impartiality,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bangladesh","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12169,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12168\/revisions\/12169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}